KATHY BEELER: Trap-neuter-return cat program not perfect but effective

The Standard-Times poll concerning the "aggressive extermination of feral cat colonies" is, by its language alone, biased. I would suggest: Should San Angelo embrace "trap, neuter, return" to help solve the overpopulation problem of free roaming cats? (and allow comments without paying for a subscription).

These are the facts about trap-neuter-return, or TNR.

TNR is a program where community cats are trapped by volunteers, spayed or neutered, given a rabies shot and returned to their outdoor homes, fed and monitored by a caretaker, all at no cost to taxpayers.

You may or may not see these cats as they usually come out at night, but they are there. Evidence of their existence comes with the smell of the spraying of unaltered animals or the sounds of males fighting over mates and territory in the night. You may eventually see the kittens born from the results of these activities.

TNR would virtually eliminate these undesirable behaviors and save lives. Sterilized cats are not mating or fighting for territory and, most importantly, not reproducing.

If you like cats, know that TNR will save lives. And if you don't like cats, know that in time this will reduce the population of community cats in our neighborhoods through attrition. An added benefit to having a colony of cats in your neighborhood is the control of rodent populations.

Many national organizations support TNR including Alley Cat Allies, the Humane Society of the United States, Best Friends Animal Society, the SPCA and the American Veterinary Medical Association.

At this time, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of compassionate residents, your neighbors, who are feeding and caring for these cats even with the threat of citations and fines with the ordinance as it now reads. Studies have shown that no matter what the threat, animal-loving people will feed and care for outdoor cats.

Obviously, trap and kill, which is what we have done for decades, hasn't worked. We have more cats than ever. We do not have enough money, people, time and equipment to trap and kill thousands of cats. We will never be able to keep up with the birthrate of the unaltered cats.

And the public would never stand for it. Most citizens probably don't even know that hundreds of cats are killed every year in our shelter simply because they lived outdoors.

More than 240 cities have abandoned trap and kill and embraced TNR and the numbers grow every day. The euthanasia figures in these cities are in sharp contrast to the cities such as San Angelo that are still trapping and killing.

The progress and cost savings is demonstrated in communities with successful TNR programs all over the nation and the world. The average cost for a city to catch, transport, keep and feed these animals for the requisite holding period, and then euthanize them, is between $100 and $200. We do not have the numbers for San Angelo, but be assured it is in the hundreds, if not the thousands, of cats.

So if the "shelter" is euthanizing 500 cats per year, that is $50,000 to $100,000 just to kill cats, out of our pockets! If the number of cats is higher, we could be spending almost a quarter of a million dollars to kill cats each and every year.

Is TNR perfect? No, we would prefer that every animal have a safe and happy home to live in. But unfortunately decades of irresponsible people who have not spayed and neutered their pets has resulted in a growing population.

Please help convince the city to embrace TNR in San Angelo. For more information about TNR, go to Alley Cat Allies website.